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Getting braces

09-18-2012, 11:29 AM

Today I consulted with my dentist. Need wisdom teeth removed but seemed pleased with the health of my teeth (I don't use tooth paste or fluoridated anything for the past few years, go figure). He also recommended 6 month braces to fix crossbite in my molars and straighten front teeth but it can require wearing retainer for life.

Now I know crooked teeth can be result of poor diet I had growing up. I'm wondering that with my improved nutrition my teeth will stay straighter without the need of a retainer.

Your teeth cannot straighten on their own, not without braces. Are you asking that if you get braces, your teeth will be less likely to migrate after they are removed? Some people's teeth move after braces, others do not. Mine have only moved a little and don't seem to be moving more, so I never bothered wearing my retainer.

Your teeth position may have more to do with your parents nutrition prior to your birth than yours as a child.

You are also often given a retainer to wear overnight at least a couple times a week, but they never tell you what to do when you need a new set (mine are pretty gross after 9 years).

Comment

I had braces as an adult. In fact, I had braces, rubber bands, headgear, and three successive sizes of Haas appliance (a kind of palate expander), my teeth were that bad.

I have seen the odd adolescent and adult get by with practically no retainer wear, but the majority of my acquaintance who haven't worn them consistently have had their teeth float out of alignment by varying degrees and undo all that work.

I know the orthos like to tell you that you will need to wear a retainer for life (including the ortho my two teen daughters are in treatment with), but I think the whole lifetime wear thing is CYA. I do think an honest wear time is probably close to 5 years, somewhat depending on how serious the problems were to begin with.

My opinion of the whole thing is that if you have misaligned teeth/bite, Primal nutrition will be mostly felt in the health of the individual teeth, gum tissue and the bone, and not in guaranteed quickly-rooted placement once treatment is finished. Orthos cannot tell how quickly or slowly each patient of theirs will respond to treatment i.e. how fast the new placement will take and then hold - that is currently not possible, and it is highly individual. (My oldest daughter's teeth move amazingly fast, and my second daughter's teeth move painfully and grindingly slowly, even though they share the same biological parentage and close to the same diet.) So the only way to ensure a permanent result is to wear the thing for a good while.

Our ortho has a neat booklet that explains in anatomical detail how teeth are moved across jaw space and also how they reroot. You should ask your ortho during your consult for this info.

It would be nice if a near-100% Primal diet would replace a retainer, but I don't think it works that way, and I wouldn't risk undoing that work and having to pay for another set of braces - or paying for nothing in the end, as the case may be. I wore my retainer for probably 3 years before finally losing it and mine haven't moved since - just FYI.

I have a mantra that I have spouted for years... "If I eat right, I feel right. If I feel right, I exercise right. If I exercise right, I think right. If I think right, I eat right..." Phil-SC

Comment

You will need to wear your retainer for at least a year to be safe. And then over night only.
Because your bone will be in a remodelling state it will be soft as hard rubber. New hard bone won't be filled in and healed completely until at least absolute minimum of 90 days after braces come off. But even then the bone will still be pliable and sleeping with your face in a pillow, obviously putting pressure on facial bones may result in a shifting of the teeth.

Make sure you wear your retainer! You don't want things to move over night, that is when it usually happens.

Comment

I wish I'd known this stuff when I got my braces off at 16. At least my teeth are still very straight, just some slight crowding on the bottom in the front. Wisdom teeth are gone now, so that's a non-issue.

I had a palate-expander too! I had the gap-tooth look for a good 6 months For some people, that will be enough to resolve their issues. I'm glad that part of my life is over.

Depression Lies

Comment

Stephan Guyenet had a series on malocclusion. I have to admit I find Stephan and his current obsession with high-carb diets tiresome. (But perhaps he has pressing professional reasons, superiors to conciliate and whatnot, that account for that.) I'm inclined to to think some of the stuff he advanced in the dental malocclusion series was probably wrong. But he did come up with an astounding photograph. Look at these girls:

These are identical twins. The girl on the left had teeth extracted. The girl on the right had a palate-widening procedure. These are really pretty girls, but the orthodontist has impacted upon the natural good looks of the girl on the left by pulling her teeth, which has changed the shape of her face.

AFAICT, there are potentially wider implications to how one's teeth fit: it even seems to affect how you feel psychologically. If, for example, there's not really room in your mouth for your tongue, it can be kind of unsettling.

I have crowded teeth myself. I can't know how I'd have felt or thought if that had not been so, but I can't think it's a small thing.

At the end of the day, I think you'll be OK whatever you do and not to worry. But I also think there's no hurry, and you could gather information and make a decision from an informed position before rushing into anything.

Comment

Had braces in my late 30's, was also told about lifetime retainer use. Went maybe 4 months daily after they were removed slowly tapered off and now don't even know where the damn things are. 10 years out not wearing them with no adverse effects. I think it is a boilerplate CYA recommendation which may or may not have some statistical justification.